Device for supporting the cutting mechanism on a harvesting machine

ABSTRACT

A harvester which has a cutting mechanism and an elongated springy support arm which in an operative position extends forwardly and downwardly from the cutting mechanism with this support arm having an upper rear end region and a lower front end region. The springy support arm carries a shoe which extends rearwardly from its lower front end region beneath the support arm to glide along the ground. The elongated springy support arm is operatively connected with the cutting mechanism for bending around a horizontal axis which extends across the support arm at its upper rear end region while remaining rigid forwardly of the upper rear end region in response to vertical forces which act to deflect the support arm at its lower front end region. In this way the shoe is tilted when encountering these vertical forces to a lesser extent than if bending occurred at the lower front end region of the support arm or at a location therealong closer to the lower front end region than the upper rear end region.

United States Patent [191 Schumacher, II et al.

[ DEVICE FOR SUPPORTING THE CUTTING H A N SM ON A HAR ES IN MACHINE [76] Inventors: Gustav Schumacher, II; Giinter Schumacher, both of Haus No. 51, 5231 Eichelhardt, Germany 22 Filed: Feb.20, 1973 21 Appl. No.: 334,086

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 21, 1972 Germany 2207959 [52] US. Cl. 56/313 [51] Int. Cl A01d 55/13 [58] Field of Search 56/312, 313, 314, 318 I [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 733,442 7/1903 Wadleigh 56/312 742,263 10/1903 Wadleigh 56/313 I 1,642,246 9/1927 Kamp 56/313 2,734,332 2/1956 Fisher 56/312 3,579,967 5/1971 Schumacher 56/313 [111 3,834,139 [451 Sept. 10,1974

Primary Examiner-Russell R. Kinsey Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Steinberg and Blake 5 7] ABSTRACT A harvester which has a cutting mechanism and an elongated springy support arm which in an operative position extends forwardly and downwardly from the cutting mechanism with this support arm having an upper rear end region and a lower front end region. The springy support arm carries a shoe which extends rearwardly from its lower front end region beneath the support arm to glide along the ground. The elongated springy support arm is operatively connected with the cutting mechanism for bending around a horizontal axis which extends across the support arm at its upper rear end region while remaining rigid forwardly of the upper rear end region in response to vertical forces which act to deflect the support arm at its lower front end region. In this way the shoe is tilted when encountering these vertical forces to a lesser extent than if bending occurred at the lower front end region of the support arm or at a location therealong closer to the lower front end region than the upper rear end region.

9 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures DEVICE FOR SUPPORTING THE CUTTING MECHANISM OF A HARVESTING MACHINE The invention relates to a device for supporting the cutting mechanism on a harvesting machine, in particular a grainharvesting machine, on the ground with at least one support arm secured to the cutting mechanism and projecting forward beyond the cutting line, on the front end of which is located a shoe.

Such support arms which often act as grain lifters and are fitted with a lifting arm or a straw lifting tube generally are made from a springy flat material, for example a flat steel profile, which is secured at one end to the cutting mechanism or the finger controlling the cutter and at the other is bent over to form a shoe. It has already been suggested that this shoe be extended to the rear and secured to the support arm by a strut. The springy material of the support arm makes it possible that the front part of the support arm connected to the shoe slides over the ground more or less parallel to it, compensating by its springiness for the irregularities in the ground, and thus the support arm moves over the ground, rubbing against it without digging into it.

These devices have the disadvantage that the shoe, as soon as the support arm, flexing along its whole length, is pressed upwards by an irregularity in the ground, moves upwards at its front tip and thus only the rear part of the shoe touches the ground. This area amounts to only a few centimeters, with the result that the shoe is subjected to increased friction at this point and is often worn away in a single harvesting season. The whole support armis thus made useless since any repair is not very feasible because of the peculiar properties of the springy material.

A further drawback of these devices lies in the fact that if the support arm or arms are also intended to act as grain lifters, any means of securing the straw lifting tube so that it will stand up to tough working conditions causes considerable difficulties. This can be explained by the fact that the tube which is thin-walled and has a relatively small diameter has to be welded to a material which has entirely different properties as regards the type and thickness of material as compared with the tube. Consequently it frequently happens that in operation the tube breaks off at the weld. Many' different methods have been tried to combat this defect as by welding in a connection plate as reinforcement in the acute angle between the support arm and the straw lifting tube. Such a measure is, however, time-demanding and therefore expensive, which is not acceptable in view of the short working life of the shoe because of the friction.

This and other difficulties are overcome by the invention in that, according to the invention, every support arm has a bend resistance moment increasing longitudinally right to the front end, and a shoe is secured to this front end.

With such an arrangement the result is that the support arm no longer flexes along its whole length but only in an area which is limited to that adjacent to the cutting mechanism. If then the support arm moves up or down out of its normal position because of a rise or depression in the ground then the shoe rises or falls, because of the fulcrum area of the support arm located well to the rear, almost parallel to the horizontal. The shoe is thus always loaded over its whole slide surface and not only at a few square centimetres. The friction per unit area at the shoe is therefore very considerably reduced.

The increase in the bend resistance moment longitudinally of the support arm can be provided in a very wide variety of ways. Thus there is the possibility of using a flat steel profile as the support arm and fitting to this a rib which gradually becomes thicker towards the front, with the rib rib having a rectangular, triangular or semi-circular cross-section, as desired. Another possibility, which is particularly favorable from the point of view of manufacture, lies in each support arm having a longitudinal with cross-section dimensions remaining constant over a substantial part of its length,

and being twisted about its longitudinal axis. In a preferred embodimnt each support arm has a rectangular cross-section and is twisted by 90 about its longitudinal axis. As however the increase in the bend-resistance moment of the support arm is always effected along its longitudinal axis, the basic result at the shoe-end of the support arm is a crossor longitudinal-sectional shape which ensures securing of a straw lifting tube capable of withstanding the toughest working conditions. In this connection it has proved particularly useful to incline the support arm at the top of its front end at an acute angle to the horizontal in order to fit a straw lifting tube. The straw lifting tube can thus be welded to the support arm over a much longer area than has hitherto been the case.

The shoe can be welded to the support arm in a known manner or, in a more useful arrangement, be secured to the support arm so that it can be removed. It has proved particularly helpful to mount the shoe so that it canswivel on and be firmly secured to the support arm. There thus arises the possibility of being able to adjust the shoe on the support arm by the same number of degrees than the support arm is inclined in relation to its fixing point which, depending on the type of machine, may be between 8 and 18. The shoe can therefore be adapted to each particular type of machine, which purely on grounds of standardization of spare supplies is an advantage, since in this way a very large range of machines can be fitted with one single device. In addition it has proved useful, in the case of a support arm acting as a grain lifter, to design the shoe and the straw lifting tube as a single component and secure this, if required, to the support arm so that it can be loosened and adjusted.

The invention is explained in more detail on the basis of the drawing which contains embodiments, partly illustrated diagrammatically.

FIG. 1 shows a side view of the device with a support arm acting as a grain lifter and a short shoe;

FIG. 2 shows a side view of the device with a support arm and a long shoe;

FIG. 3 shows a side view of the device of FIG. 2 with a support arm acting as a grain lifter, and

FIG. 4 shows a side view of the device with a support arm acting as grain lifter and an adjustable short shoe.

As is clear from FIGS. 1 to 4 the device comprises a springy support arm 1 with a narrow cross-section which is secured at one end 2 below the cutter finger 3 on its securing screw 4 which is connected to the clamp holder 5 on the cutting mechanism support 6, with the securing shackle 7, acting as a lateral and vertical guide, fixed to arm 1 and fitting round the point of the cutter finger. The support arm 1 is twisted about its longitudinal axis by 90 so that the front end region 8 of the support arm is set in a vertical plane perpendicular to rear end region 2. To this end 8 is secured the shoe 9. The shoe 9 can be made short, as shown in FIG. 1 and 4, or it be made longer, as shown in FIG. 2 and 3, with the end 10 adjacent to the cutter mechanism being connected by a strut 11 to the support arm 1. As may be seen from FIGS. 2 and 3, the strut 11 is fixed at its upper end to a lower surface of the springy support arm means 1 and extends downwardly and rearwardly into engagement with an upper surface of the shoe 9. At its upper surface the shoe 9 carries a strap which extends over the lower rear end of the strut 11 so that the rear end of the shoe 9 is longitudinally displaceable with respect to the strut 11. The latter is designed so that it can flex.

Apart from the non-detachable method of mounting the shoe 9 to the front end 8 of the support arm 1, as by welding this method is illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 it is also possible to use, to particular effect, a detachable method of fixing FIGS. 1 and 4. In the method shown in FIG. 1 a perpendicular shackle 12 with two bores is welded to the shoe 9, into which bores and corresponding ones in the support arm end 8 rivets, screws or other securing means 13 can be inserted.

In particular in the case of support arms acting as grain lifters, as in FIGS. 1 and 3 and 4, the front end 8 of the support arm 1 is inclined on the top at an acute angle to the horizontal. At this sloped point the straw raising tube 14 is welded which thus is given an extended welding joint 15 to the extent that any breaking off of the tube 14 is safely avoided even when it is very strongly stressed. The inclined end 8 of the support arm 1 thus forms a kind of connection plate between the shoe 9 and the straw raising tube 14.

In another embodiment of a support arm acting as a grain lifter, which is shown in FIG. 4, the straw raising tube 14 and the shoe 9 form a single component which is secured to the support arm 1 so that it can be swivelled and secured in position. The shoe 9 and the straw raising tube 14 are each secured to a connection plate 16 which itself is mounted by means of a nut and bolt connection 17 to the vertical end 8 of the support arm 1 so that it can beswivelled and secured in position. In order to prevent any accidental swivelling of the component in relation to the support arm known means, such as toothed discs, securing plates or the like, can be provided. In this way it is possible to adjust the shoe 9 so that it is always parallel to the ground, even when, depending on the type of machine the cutting mechanism is at different angles to the ground surface. By means of this adjustability the device is universally utilizable. The production design no longer needs to be adapted to suit each particular machine.

Thus, the elongated springy support arm means 1 which extends forwardly and downwardly from the cutting mechanism support 6 is in the form of an elongated springy bar of rectangular cross-section having a relatively small thickness and relatively narrow opposed side edges and having relatively wide opposed parallel surfaces which are perpendicular to the opposed side edges. These relatively wide-parallel surfaces of the bar are situated in a vertical plane at the lower front end region 8 of the springy support arm means 1, with these vertical surfaces at the lower front end region 8 being perpendicular to the wide opposed parallel surfaces of the bar 1 at its upper rear end region 2. This arrangement is brought about by providing in the bar 1 the twist situated between the front and rear end regions of the'springy support arm means 1. As a result of this construction when the front end region 8 of the springy support arm means 1 encounters vertical forces which deflect the front end region 8 upwardly or downwardly the springy support arm means 1 will necessarily bend around a horizontal axis which extends across the support arm means 1 at its upper rear end region 2. This action results from the fact that the bar 1 is much easier to bend around an axis extending across its wide surfaces parallel thereto than around an axis which extends through the bar 1 perpendicularly to its opposed wide surfaces. Therefore with the structure of the invention the bar 1 will not bend in response to vertical forces at its front end region 8 and instead the bar I will bend about a horizontal axis in response to such vertical forces at its upper rear end region 2. The result is that the elongated springy support arm means 1 remains rigid when encountering these vertical forces along the length of the bar means 1 extending from its lower front end region 8 up to its upper rear end region 2, with the result that the shoe 9 tilts with respect to the ground along which it glides to a lesser extent than if the bar 1 were to bend in response to these vertical forces around a horizontal axis at its front end region 8 or closer to the front end region 8 than the upper rear end region 2.

This same action achieves the further advantage of making the support arm means 1 much easier to bend around a vertical axis at the lower front end region 8 than at the upper rear end region 2. Thus when the shoe 9 encounters horizontal deflecting forces as when the shoe 9 engages a rock or other obstruction pressing against the side of the shoe 9, the bending of the support arm means 1 easily takes place about a vertical axis at its lower front end region 8 while no bending takes place at the upper rear end region 2 so that the extent to which the shoe 9 is laterally deflected is minimal.

We claim:

1. In a harvester which has a cutting mechanism support, elongated springly support arm means having an operative position inclined forwardly and downwardly from said cutting mechanism support with said arm means having an upper rear end region and a lower front end region, said arm means carrying at said lower front end region a shoe extending rearwardly from said lower front end region of said arm means beneath the latter for gliding along the ground, said springy support arm means being operatively connected with said cutting mechanism support for bending around a horizontal axis extending across said arm means at said upper rear end region thereof while remaining rigid forwardly from said upper rear end region in response to vertical forces acting to deflect said arm means at said lower front end region thereof, to tilt said shoe when encounten'ng said vertical forces to a lesser extent than if bending occurred at said lower front end region of said support arm means or at a location therealong closer to said lower front end region than said upper rear end region, said elongated springy support arm means having the construction of an elongated springy bar of rectangular cross-section having a relatively small thickness and relatively narrow opposed side edges and relatively wide opposed parallel surfaces extending perpendicularly with respect to said side edges, said opposed surfaces at said upper rear end region of said arm means being parallel to said horizontal axis and said surfaces at said lower front end region of said arm means being vertical, said bar having a twisted configuration between said end regions thereof.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said bar has a single 90 twist between said front and rear end regions thereof.

3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said shoe is releasably connected with said arm means.

4. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a connecting means connects said shoe to said arm means for swivelling movement about a horizontal axis extending through said arm means at said lower front end region thereof and for selectively fixing said shoe to said arm means at a selected angle with respect thereto.

5. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said elongated springy support arm means has at its lower front end region an upper edge which is inclined downwardly at an acute angle with respect to a horizontal plane, and

an elongated grain lifter fixed to said arm means at said upper edge of said lower front end region thereof and extending upwardly and rearwardly from said lower front end region of said arm means.

6. The combination of claim 5 and wherein said grain lifter and shoe are fixed to each other and form a single component.

7. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said shoe extends rearwardly beyond said upper rear end region of said arm means, and a strut fixed to said arm means and extending downwardly and rearwardly therefrom into engagement with said shoe where said strut is operatively connected with said shoe for supporting the latter.

8. The combination of claim 7 and wherein said shoe is longitudinally displaceable with respect to said strut.

9. The combination of claim 7 and wherein said strut is capable of flexing. 

1. In a harvester which has a cutting mechanism support, elongated springly support arm means having an operative position inclined forwardly and downwardly from said cutting mechanism support with said arm means having an upper rear end region and a lower front end region, said arm means carrying at said lower front end region a shoe extending rearwardly from said lower front end region of said arm means beneath the latter for gliding along the ground, said springy support arm means being operatively connected with said cutting mechanism support for bending around a horizontal axis extending across said arm means at said upper rear end region thereof while remaining rigid forwardly from said upper rear end region in response to vertical forces acting to deflect said arm means at said lower front end region thereof, to tilt said shoe when encountering said vertical forces to a lesser extent than if bending occurred at said lower front end region of said support arm means or at a location therealong closer to said lower front end region than said upper rear end region, said elongated springy support arm means having the construction of an elongated springy bar of rectangular cross-section having a relatively small thickness and relatively narrow opposed side edges and relatively wide opposed parallel surfaces extending perpendicularly with respect to said side edges, said opposed surfaces at said upper rear end region of said arm means being parallel to said horizontal axis and said surfaces at said lower front end region of said arm means being vertical, said bar having a twisted configuration between said end regions thereof.
 2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said bar has a single 90* twist between said front and rear end regions thereof.
 3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said shoe is releasably connected with said arm means.
 4. The combination of claim 1 and wherein a connecting means connects said shoe to said arm means for swivelling movement about a horizontal axis extending through said arm means at said lower front end region thereof and for selectively fixing said shoe to said arm means at a selected angle with respect thereto.
 5. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said elongated springy support arm means has at its lower front end region an upper edge which is inclined downwardly at an acute angle with respect to a horizontal plane, and an elongated grain lifter fixed to said arm means at said upper edge of said lower front end region thereof and extending upwardly and rearwardly from said lower front end region of said arm means.
 6. The combination of claim 5 and wherein said grain lifter and shoe are fixed to each other and form a single component.
 7. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said shoe extends rearwardly beyond said upper rear end region of said arm means, and a strut fixed to said arm means and extending downwardly and rearwardly therefrom into engagement with said shoe where said strut is operatively connected with said shoe for supporting the latter.
 8. The combination of claim 7 and wherein said shoe is longitudinally displaceable with respect to said strut.
 9. The combination of claim 7 and wherein said strut is capable of flexing. 